Dem woids

Do you know what one of the hardest parts of martial arts is? Not the techniques, or the conditioning, or the pain. It's the terminology.

Take Karate, for example. There are 5 basic blocks introduced to beginners in the first few classes. The names are fairly descriptive, but do take a little learning. They are, rising block, lower block, outside forearm block, inside forearm block, and knifehand block. Not bad.

The student also has to learn the Japanese names; age uke, gedan berai, soto ude uke, uchi ude uke, and shuto uke. For a long time, these are meaningless syllables.

It is the same with the strikes, stances, and kicks, and these are just the basic techniques. I never found this easy.

Now I'm in Jiu-Jitsu and struggling to learn all the names for the various chokes, and locks, and throws, and escapes. The namers have tried to be as descriptive as possible, but it is still confusing.

For example; if somebody has their hooks in, you might have to use a fish hook, or a hook removal.

It's coming, but slowly. I review things at home in addition to the classes.

At least it's not in Japanese this time.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu comes from Brazil, so I'm just happy it's not in Portuguese.